WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush spent more than an hour on Monday with the independent panel examining strategic options for Iraq, and cautioned afterward that while he was open to new ideas, it was important for "people making suggestions to recognize that the best military options depend upon conditions on the ground."

The U.S. president's brief remarks seemed aimed at Democrats, who are demanding a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq, beginning in a matter of months. Bush has steadfastly resisted any timetable, and his comments on Monday offered the first hint of how he might respond.

Addressing reporters in the Oval Office, Bush shed little light on the substance of his hour-and-15-minute session with members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, led by James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman. The president said that they had "a good discussion," and that he was "looking forward to interesting ideas."

Bush is under intense pressure to change course in Iraq, from Democrats and from some Republicans. One leading Republican, Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said in an interview on Monday that the election results were a clear cry for a new Iraq strategy.

But Warner, who created a stir among Republicans this fall when he said the situation in Iraq was "drifting sideways," appealed to his colleagues not to rush to conclusions before a report by the commission, which is expected in December.

Other Republicans also weighed in. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a leading member of the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that he would "adamantly oppose" any effort to set a deadline for withdrawal, calling it "equivalent to surrendering in the central battlefront in the war on terror."

Democrats, for their part, continued their offensive, saying the American people had given them a mandate.

In a news conference on Capitol Hill, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, who will be the next Armed Services chairman, accused the administration of "ignoring obvious reality on the ground in Iraq, that we're getting deeper and deeper into a hole that we should stop digging."

The debate will soon move to the Armed Services panel. Among the senators on that committee are leading contenders in the nascent 2008 presidential campaign, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain, who has been talking about increasing rather than decreasing the numbers of troops in Iraq.

On Wednesday, the committee will hear testimony from General John P. Abizaid, the top military commander in the Middle East.

Iraq policy will also no doubt play a role in the confirmation hearings next month for Robert M. Gates, the former CIA director, who is the president's choice to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld as secretary of defense. Gates was a member of the Iraq Study Group but stepped down when his new appointment was announced.

The Iraq Study Group, formed at the request of Congress, is in Washington this week for a last round of interviews before making its final recommendations. Vice President Dick Cheney attended Monday's Oval Office session, and the group met with other members of the Bush foreign policy team.

In his comments Monday, Bush appeared to be walking a fine line - declaring that he was open to new tactics in Iraq, but seeming to foreclose some options.

Before their meeting at the White House, some commission members said they sensed that the White House and the commission members were, in the words of one, "feeling each other out, trying to sense where this is going."

Baker has made no secret of his belief that the Bush administration must talk to its enemies, Syria and Iran included. In a speech on Monday, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Great Britain said the West should be open to Iran and Syria - but only if they take a cooperative stance.

Bush did not budge on those points. Asked about Syria, he said, "We do have an embassy there in Syria," without mentioning that contacts with the Syrian government have been limited. The president then laid out preconditions for talks with the Syrian government. Nor did Bush give any ground on Iran, instead reiterating his long-held stance that the Iranian government must suspend the enrichment of uranium before Washington will join talks.

Many officials inside and outside the administration are looking for signs that Bush will modify his views, especially now that he has nominated Gates, who led a committee of the Council on Foreign Relations calling for more engagement with Iran. But Bush aides say talking to Syria or Iran is simply not enough.

"Talking isn't a strategy," Hadley, the national security adviser, said in an interview last month. "The issue is how can we condition the environment so that Iran and Syria will make a 180-degree turn."

Expectations are high both inside and outside the administration that the Baker-Hamilton group will provide a face-saving way forward for Bush in Iraq. But one leading Republican, Representative Duncan Hunter, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said lawmakers should not delude themselves by thinking there would be easy answers.

"No matter what the commission recommends, the day after the recommendations come out, you're going to have American troops in Iraq continuing to train and stand up the Iraqi forces," Hunter said. "You have to do that. There's no shortcut to that. There's no silver bullet and there's no easy way to do it."